Bug 2507822 (CVE-2026-64538)

Summary: CVE-2026-64538 kernel: ipv6: Fix null-ptr-deref in fib6_nh_mtu_change()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's IPv6 networking component. A null pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the `fib6_nh_mtu_change()` function. This can occur when the `idev` (in6_device) pointer is cleared during network interface shutdown, but the `fib6_nh_mtu_change()` function attempts to dereference it without a proper null check. An attacker could potentially trigger this condition, leading to a kernel crash and a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Bug Depends On: 2508327, 2508326    
Bug Blocks:    

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-27 21:06:36 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipv6: Fix null-ptr-deref in fib6_nh_mtu_change().

fib6_nh_mtu_change() re-fetches idev via __in6_dev_get(arg->dev) and
dereferences idev->cnf.mtu6 without a NULL check. addrconf_ifdown()
clears dev->ip6_ptr with RCU_INIT_POINTER() after rt6_disable_ip() has
released tb6_lock, so the RA-driven MTU walk can observe a NULL idev and
oops. The caller rt6_mtu_change_route() guards its own __in6_dev_get(),
but this re-fetch is unguarded; nexthop-backed routes survive
addrconf_ifdown()'s flush, so the walk still reaches it after ip6_ptr is
nulled.

Return 0 when idev is NULL, matching rt6_mtu_change_route() and the
fib6_mtu() fix in commit 5ad509c1fdad ("ipv6: Fix null-ptr-deref in
fib6_mtu().").

  Oops: general protection fault, ... KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range
        [0x00000000000002a8-0x00000000000002af]
  RIP: 0010:fib6_nh_mtu_change+0x203/0x990
   rt6_mtu_change_route+0x141/0x1d0
   __fib6_clean_all+0xd0/0x160
   rt6_mtu_change+0xb4/0x100
   ndisc_router_discovery+0x24b5/0x2cb0
   icmpv6_rcv+0x12e9/0x1710
   ipv6_rcv+0x39b/0x410

Comment 1 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2026-07-28 14:59:10 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026072735-CVE-2026-64538-1a88@gregkh/T